ChgoGal

Hi, Fodorites!

Do any of you pay for a VPN service to watch British broadcasting online? Just curious if you have and how well it works for you, and which provider you chose.

ITV has Victoria coming soon, that I hope to watch online.

Anyone do this?

hetismij2

I use a Windows 10 app called Film On Live TV occasionally. No VPN needed. We get BBC1 and 2 on our cable here in the Netherlands, and often get ITV series on Dutch or Belgian TV.
We used to get BBC4 as well but for some reason it was dropped, so I use the app if there is a music programme on BBC4 I want to watch.
DH has used a VPN to access BBC iPlayer in the past,I dont know about live TV though.

davispeets

Yes- I did it for a period of time with tunnel bear. It worked fine.

Alec

BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub work with some VPN but not with others. BBC and ITV are wising up to the fact that many people use VPN to access their programmes outside UK (which is against their rules) so they have started blocking some (especially those VPNs that publish the fake UK IP addresses they use). You are usually ok with virtual or random hubs.

crellston

I spend most of the time overseas and use Netshade VPN /Proxy server on my iPad to access BBC, ITV and Channel 4 . Works perfectly. It is also available for Mac and PC.

Note that from the Autumn, BBC is planning to only allow access to UK TV license payers. Presumably that will require a license number to access iPlayer.

flanneruk

Can't help on the technology.

But leaks indicate one key subplot in the series is the relationship between Victoria and her first Prime Minster, Lord Melbourne.

There's no evidence of any hank-panky between them - even though in those days, newspapers were a lot more straightforward.

His obituary in The Times read in part:

<i> “A man of easy virtue . . . he lived a life of fashionable gaiety. He was once a very handsome man and he enjoyed at all times the advantages of a prepossessing appearance, a mellow voice, a cheerful temper and a cordial frankness of manner which, not withstanding that it sometimes degenerated into coarseness, acquired for him, on the whole, much popularity.

Reputed to be indolent, he rarely took any trouble to disprove the common rumour.

For a man of his easy temper he was wonderfully successful in escaping the embarrassments with which he found himself.

There were features in his character which the most indulgent of mankind must condemn. Carelessness and procrastination rendered him one of the most tempting objects of banter.” </i>

Hard to imagine mainstream papers being so honest in modern obituaries.

ChgoGal

"The embarrassments with which he found himself." I do love the eloquence and restraint of those Victorian-era writers.

Will be a treat to watch. Having seen the disappointing trailer, with the far-too-beautiful actress portraying Victoria, I don't anticipate anything revelatory, but hope to enjoy the scenery and costumes.

What is ITV's reputation there in England? Is it sort of seen as low-brow? Or is it known for higher quality productions and writing? I forget which BBC channel I always found myself watching during my happy stays in England. There's one channel that always seemed to air documentaries/re-enactments on the history of England. Sort of like America's PBS.

Anyway, hope to find the time soon to sort out the VPN, though if Crellston's information is true, I may not be able to access some networks.

sofarsogood

Traditionally, ITV is the main commercial broadcaster and has much high quality output with a mix of popular entertainment. Inspector Morse, Lewis, Downton Abbey, Broadchurch, Coronation Street are all ITV shows.

The BBC has a reputation for showing costume dramas but its too simplistic to define ITV as low brow - its competes with BBC One; whereas BBC Two and Channel 4 show less mainstream and more special interest shows - documentaries for example.

ChgoGal

Ah, thanks for the information, sofarsogood. I really hope I can access ITV here in the US, now.

At the moment, I'm watching Idris Elba in Luther, and The Tunnel on PBS. A few years old, for you in England, I believe.

Thanks again!

Alec

BBC doesn't plan to change technology for receiving BBC programmes abroad by requiring to input your TV licence number, for example. But it will become a criminal offence to use iPlayer without licence within UK, and offender can be fined up to £1,000. So there should be no change in being able to watch BBC programmes abroad through iplayer using VPN, for example, and you aren't breaking any local law by doing so.
There is a talk of BBC allowing UK licence payer to input a code when they go abroad to enable them to receive BBC programmes without having to use VPN.

flanneruk

Channel 4 has nothing to do with the BBC. Sofasogood is confusing it with BBC4, a digital-only station specialising in stuff you might loosely call culture. It sounds like the station ChgoGal though "always seemed to air documentaries/re-enactments on the history of England."

Actually BBC4 specialises in historical documentaries: they're far more often concerned with international issues (Romanesque architecture, the role of women rulers, naval history) than with England, though a great deal of the period covered tends to be when the England was inseparable on the issue concerned from its immediate European and Atlantic neighbours.

Unlike the BBC and Channel 4, ITV is responsible to profit-motivated shareholders: unlike the BBC, its income is largely from advertising and sponsorship. So it's more preoccupied with audience size. But it can't escape the higher spending power (and therefore higher sales revenues from advertising) of the elderly educated, or the resale revenues from programmes carrying the "British culture" stamp - and its production of Downton Abbey was aimed at the second of these markets, though clearly no grown-up with a brain would be seen dead watching it.

You can't seriously call ITV low-brow. It just takes making money more seriously

sofarsogood

Nah I wasn't getting confused. I usually forget about BBC 4 - like most people probably.

There's always Channel 5 if you like fly on the wall documentaries about people being evicted or rescuing poorly puppies.

ChgoGal

Thanks, flanner and sofarsogood. I actually DO think it was BBC4, because I do remember it being BBC-something. And it seemed to always be among the limited programming options at the hotels and B&Bs I stayed in.

No, after hearing the ITV productions, I wouldn't call ITV low-brow at all. America's got some low-brow networks like Spike TV (Cops), TLC (Toddlers & Tiaras) and TruTV.

I wondered because after seeing the bad trailer for Victoria, it reminded me of The Tudors on Showtime, or Reign on the CW network. Just wondering how much historical accuracy the ITV might adhere to.

Thanks to you both for the English POV!